Operation Icarus

Point Defence Railgun

Retrieved by members of the primary Strike Team following their abduction, this defence system utilises an integrated sensor and processing package to automatically acquire targets for a rifle-scale railgun.

The unit appears sealed and armoured. It has not yet been possible to dismantle it as the system is still actively seeking targets, and remote destruction has been deemed unnecessary while data can be gathered.

The targeting system has been proven to rely on wide-band IR sensing to establish targets, firing only on living creatures of +/-30% human size or IR-similar artificial targets created by the research team.

The railgun is exceptionally powerful for a weapon of its size, with similar capabilities on a per-shot basis to the M61 Vulcan, exchanging high rate of fire for drastically reduced weight and physically smaller ammunition. If the technology can be replicated, it will render most assault and marksman’s rifles obsolete.

Many parts of the targeting and feed systems appear to be almost organic in nature, distorting like muscles to change shape. When stationary, however, they appear to be a more conventional plastic-like material. Possibly they are a form of semi-organic polymer.